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As my wife and daughter know, I'm a sucker for a quick wink or even a half smile (from them — this doesn't work for every one).

Hold that thought.

Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City recently began selling a new beer, Amber Ale. You can buy it in draught in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, or find it in bottles in Boulevard's 12-Pack Sampler. I received a couple of bottles from the brewery and drank one last night.

I have a friend who does not approve of drinking beers named after colors. He gets around the fact that he loves Belgian Whites by calling them witbiers. I have no such problem, but I did taste at least one too many amber ales on brewpub sample trays in the 1990s and never quite recovered.

Too often they have a sticky sweetness that no amount of hops can balance (some being IPAs by name). No such problem with Boulevard Amber. Its biggest fault might be that the "sell sheet" describes it as quaffable. Because it is 5.1 percent abv I guess it doesn't qualify as a "session beer" under the Bryson Rules, but it sure meets his other criteria.

Flavor when you look for it; doesn't get jealous when you want to talk about something other than what's in the glass.

And, for me at least, a bonus. There's a bright, spicy note on the nose that yields to the malt, then returns on the palate. Looking at the list of ingredients I suspect the protagonist might be the Saphir hops (a relatively new variety from Germany's Halltertau region). Bottom line, I don't really care.